It was just meant to scare Iseult. Javier did not actually do anything.“I probably won’t make it back the whole day because I’m going to investigate the Raiders that you know so much about and I don’t. So this diaper will be your most loyal friend. Do you want it or not?”Iseult did not want it, but that meant that she could only replay what had happened last night. In Javier’s words, she would have no self-control. She could only complain to him. “How am I going to wear it if you don’t free me?!”Javier thought that the answer was obvious. “I’ll help you put it on.”He lifted Iseult’s legs to pull the diaper up, and the girl panicked. “I’m still wearing my un—I’m still wearing that. What’s the point of you pulling the diaper up like this?!”Realization seemed to strike Javier. “Oh, that’s right. Thanks for the reminder. Okay, I’ll take it off for you.”Javier was about to do it, and Iseult was already dying of embarrassment. She obviously had not meant it like that. She wanted
On the other hand, Javier had already gone to see Herschel. After Herschel’s questioning last night, the middle-aged man had no idea what had gone on. He had just seen Iseult sitting alone and tried to pick a girl up by showing off his B
Derek, who found out that Kellyanne was the chairman’s mother-in-law, hurried up to apologize on behalf of his neighbor. At the same time, he reprimanded the other woman. Even though anyone could see that Derek was doing it to save her, the timing was pretty appropriate.Javier was not going to get petty with the woman, and Kellyanne got to brag about her status as the chairman’s mother-in-law. The woman apologized to both Javier and Kellyanne ultimately and the matter came to an end.After Derek bid Javier goodbye, he left with his neighbor.“You—what were you…Sigh!”Derek did not know what to say, and the woman obviously looked exasperated.“I didn’t know he’s the chairman. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have offended him…”While Derek and the woman left, murmuring to each other, Kellyanne asked Javier, “Uh, Javier, you weren’t upset because I called you my son-in-law, right?”Javier smiled. “Why would I? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”At Javier’s answer, Kellyanne was overjoyed. She k
Javier had gone out of his way to shop at a boutique to avoid familiar faces, but he had not expected to still run into Grace. What felt more like a coincidence was that…they went to the hotel and booked a room—either because Grace was moved or thoroughly won over.What happened could not simply end in a rush, of course, especially when this was a beautiful woman like Grace.Hence, it was already past 5 p.m. when they left the hotel. Grace walked with an awkward gait but she was radiant, while Javier was the exact opposite. He had a good posture but he was not looking too great. He was completely spent.He basically had done nothing during the day except f*ck Bella and Grace. The two women were nothing less than enchantresses.In spite of this, Javier still had to get back to his task. He had not bought that underwear to hook up with Iseult.After having dinner with Grace, he took the girl back and headed for his third shopping attempt. He gave up on the mall and lingerie boutique
Javier did not regard Iseult, who was panicking. If it had been any other time, he would not have just regarded her. He would have “taken care” of her properly. However, he did not have the energy to do that right now. As soon as he threw himself on the bed, he went to sleep, hugging Iseult.The girl froze in fear, afraid that Javier would force himself on her. Five minutes later, Javier still did not have any kind of reaction. When she bumped him lightly on the shoulder, she realized the man was actually asleep. His breathing was even too, which proved that he was deeply asleep.This confused Iseult. What was Javier doing? He had been gone for a whole day, and then he had come back to sleep right away. What did he want to do? What had he been doing?Unable to figure it out, Iseult knew only one thing very well: She was not Javier’s rival. The man had more tricks up his sleeve than her, so she gave up on figuring him out since she was unable to.Javier had played her like a fool wh
The trust-fund kid was convinced some misunderstanding had taken place, but Javier disputed that. Sure, a misunderstanding had occurred, but did it matter? No. It mattered not a whit. He had given the trust-fund kid time to leave, but he had wasted that chance. A bit too late for regrets now, wasn’t it? A wrongdoer had to be punished, so Javier beat him up until he had to crawl under the desk. The poor man shrieked and wailed like a banshee under the desk as Javier brutalized him.By the time Javier was finished, Iseult had returned with black eyes. No one else followed her. She seemed to have come back alone. Shortly after she had left, she had rounded a corner and found her path blocked by Herschel. The two of them had immediately gotten into a fight. It was technically a one-sided fight more than anything. Iseult had been the one pommeled, it seemed, which would explain her injuries. Javier looked at her wounds and laughed. “Didn’t know you were into smokey eye make-up!”Iseul
Iseult’s fear grew exponentially. The closer Javier loomed over her body, the more terrified she became. By the time she could feel his breath on her skin, her fear reached a fever pitch.He took a long, hard sniff of her skin while Iseult’s cheeks burned at the humiliation. She blushed so hard one might think her face was bleeding. “Delicious,” he crooned, being utterly shameless. “You’re a disgusting, despicable bastard and a sh*t stain of a human being!” she screamed.Javier considered her anxiety and laughed. “Then you can just tell me what I want to hear.”Iseult knew exactly what he meant, but the last thing she wanted to do was oblige. In fact, she tried threatening him. “If Piers knows I’m still alive, you know his guilt and conscience will compel him to save me, right? And once he finds out what you did to me today, you know he’ll be livid. He won’t let you live after this! The Whites will wage war against the Kerseys, and your losses will be immeasurable!” Iseult had
Conviction maketh man, they said. But conviction, especially faith, could also bring a man to ruin. Such was its nature as a double-edged sword. People who gathered over shared interests would sooner break away than people who gathered for the same cause. A shared conviction would turn them into a force of terror shaped by the singularity of their minds, with nothing as momentary as interests to distract them. They marched in a single direction in unison, unbreakable and unwavering. If the conviction was good, then such a force would also be good. But the Raiders’ cause was not. Building their own empire was just a means to an end, and one could tell because nothing seemed beyond the pale for them. What they—or what the leader of the Raiders—really wanted was to be the ruler of the world. It was a mortifying thought in an age when most wars could be fought on a technological front. A megalomaniac madman could bring the whole world down with him. The number of a-bombs in the entir
As Bernadetta launched a barrage of kicks against the restaurant door, Mrs. Greene summoned 120% of her strength, holding the fort. The older woman had made a living terrorizing others with absurd accusations and downright unreasonable demands, but this time, she had met her match. Bernadetta James put the “man” in the word “woman”—in that she resorted to violence as soon as things escalated. In the end, it took both Mrs. Greene’s apology and a deal to provide Javier and Bernadetta with three days’ meals, all free of charge, to make the young woman stop. Then—“because I actually have a weakness against people sincerely appealing to my better angels,” according to Bernadetta—she amended the peace offer, changing the three days’ free meals to…a week’s worth. Back in the inn, Javier expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Bernadetta for rescuing him. “I can’t thank you enough for standing by my side when I needed it the most, Bern. But I can thank you a bit more if you refrain from using t
Mrs. Greene opened her flap and unlocked the floodgate, the spit during her tirade so profusive that she could water an old lady’s lawn. “It’s him, officers! It’s all him! He did this to his own camera just to remove himself as a suspect, but we know better than that! He’s the guy who stole my goddamn lingerie!”She turned and trained her finger on Javier. “You vile, disgusting, degenerate piece of sh*t! Ptooey!”‘Back at you! I'd rather spend the night with my left hand than with you!’ By this point in the morning, Bernadetta had arrived at work. Her heels clicked onto the floor as she sauntered toward the commotion. As soon as she heard what had transpired, she laughed, looking clearly amused. She trained her perfectly manicured finger on Javier and piled on. “Oh, it was him. I can testify to that! He stole Mrs. Greene’s bra because he is…the Lingerie Phantom Thief! By day, he is Javier Kersey. At night, he is Jo Ker, the Bra Stealer!” Javier threw his arms up in exasperation
Javier shook his head. By the time his vision was back to normal, the dog was gone. It had escaped! “What kind of hell spawned this little sh*t?!” Javier wondered to himself aloud. “Was this really an effect of the world changing? Is this an example of mutation because of the Storm? Or is there something else at play?”Baffled and unsure what to think, Javier returned to the dorm and told the residents to open the door. Inside, he found Florence huddling the frightened kids closely. She was white from fear, and yet in the presence of vulnerable kids, she had assumed the role of the protector without a second thought. “Hush, it’s alright! It was fake. Someone pulled a terrible prank and put on this white sheet and…” Javier made up a fib to explain the haunting away exactly because the truth could land him in a mental institution. No one would believe him—and for good reason too!Javier drove Florence back to the Yuzuian restaurant, where the latter’s electric scooter was. While
A resentful wail—interspersed only by sobs that sounded more like someone was being strangled—was echoing in the middle of the night while Javier and Florence could not see even a single soul out there? Animated by the power of “hell, naw!”, Florence dove into Javier’s arms for protection. Her hands were clasped firmly on either side of her head, hoping to block out the ghastly demand in her ears. Her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut that even a crowbar could not pry them open.Javier himself was just as terrified. He would have felt better if he could see the source of the voice rather than just hear a woman sobbing about getting her head back. At least he would know what he was up against! But just hearing it without any visuals at all?! Nooooope!Then, Florence hugged him in a “help-me!” sort of way. She was soft and supple—damn, that sexy figure in combination with her silky-smooth skin sure was welcoming. She was warm, and damn did she smell good! Nothing competed with fea
The dog barked in protest as it pointed its paw at Javier with the intensity of a mob before executing a monarch. The flames in its eyes were so bright that they could incinerate Javier into ashes in milliseconds. In the end, though, all that protest was for naught. Constance tied it up in the parking garage, while Javier watched in glee. Ah, sweet, sweet revenge! The stupid dog had thought it could set him up, had it? That would teach it!The look the Pomeranian shot him almost felt like a threat: ‘Just you f*cking wait, hooman!’‘Wait for what? How much can a stupid b*tch like you do to me?’ Javier scoffed in his mind. Now that the four-legged pest was gone, Javier turned back to Constance and talked about the new orphanage. As it turned out, despite the old woman’s sentiments for the building she had founded, she was a lot less obstinate and unreasonable as she might appear. “I mean, I don’t object to it completely. I know the new place is gonna be better, but…” She faltered a
Florence called half an hour later to tell him where they’d be having dinner. After leaving the inn in Bernadetta’s care, he hurried to the venue. Florence had picked a newly-opened Yuzuian restaurant. Javier had never liked Yuzuian restaurants, but since Florence had invited him, courtesy stopped him from asking the woman to change their meeting venue. He found Florence quickly enough and sat across from her. They placed their orders, and Javier began his performance: He started sighing and doing his best to look forlorn. It intrigued Florence enough to ask what was wrong, and Javier told her about his unfortunate beef with Constance that day.“It’s so unfair, man! Why would I bully a dog for no reason?” he moaned. “I’m sure Aunt Constance misunderstood. You’re a knightly, heroic, kind man! How could someone like you possibly get off on hurting a dog? I’m sure Aunt Constance was just too worried about the dog’s welfare to think things through. She didn’t mean it. I can vouch for
Herschel was dressed quite sharply today. It was the full ensemble—black leather shoes, black slacks, a white collar, and last but not least, the good old oil-slicked hair. The typical look of a high-ranking office worker, just as Javier had requested. Ordering him to get in his car, Javier asked, “You brought all the stuff I told you to?”“Yo, I would never forget the stuff my boss told me to bring. I’ve got all the preparations down pat. You can check ‘em if you don’t trust me,” Herschel replied. He fished an ID and some documents out of his leather bag. “See? All the documentation a journalist in the most important room of a news agency would have.”After a round-check and some instructions, Javier sent Herschel on his way to complete his mission. The man was strangely reluctant, though. “Boss, you told me you decided to work in that inn, right? Does that mean, you know, that you’re gonna call me ‘boss’ while you’re there?”Javier had almost forgotten he had mentioned this. It
Javier’s suspicion turned to Constance Hellman’s white Pomeranian. He turned to the director’s office and met the dog’s eyes. With its paws on the windowsill, it hoisted itself up to look out of the window. Seeing the dog cracking a lopsided grin and baring its fangs—beaming as smugly as a teacher’s pet who had managed to subdue everyone through the power of being the boss’s favorite—made it look both amusing and chilling. It would have been had the dog not caught Javier’s gaze, suddenly dropped the smile, and put on a face that seemed to be saying, ‘I’m just your average dog! Nothing to see here!’And then it feigned—yes, feigned—a yawn as its one last measure to cover up the fact that it had been laughing smugly to itself. ‘What. The. Actual. F*ck?!’ Javier thundered in his mind. ‘B*tch’s a natural actress! What’s it doing here instead of being interviewed on a talk show after becoming viral on TikTok?’In combination with Russell’s report, the incident inside the director’s of
As Javier was befuddled, Constance rushed in from outside and picked up the white Pomeranian gingerly to carefully check its injured leg.“Oh, baby, what’s the matter? Did you hurt your leg?”The white Pomeranian whined in pain and began twitching upon hearing Constance’s concerned question. This upset Constance so much that she admonished him sternly. “Mr. Kersey, I thought that you were a loving person, but I can’t help doubting your motive now.“I’m skeptical about you taking good care of the kids here when you’d even hit a cute dog!”Javier felt extremely offended. When had he hit the dog? He hurriedly explained, “Madam Hellman, I didn’t do anything!”Constance asked angrily, “You didn’t do anything? Why would it suddenly limp now and whine so pathetically? Why did it hurry over to me? Give me a reasonable explanation!”Javier was in distress as well. “How would I know? It was fine when I was carrying it just now, but it wanted to get down on the floor, so I carefully placed